Chester Frazier Does Magic

It's true. It's so magical and mysterious you don't even know it's happening during the game. You can see Frazier the whole time and you can see the poor soul he is guarding, but it's all an illusion. It's like LOST without that feeling that it's being written by a drunk guy making up a story. Chester Frazier actually makes an opponent's best player disappear.

Joe College from the Daily Herald relayed a story in which he overheard NBA scouts talking about Illinois' senior point guard. Obviously, the scouts weren't raving about Frazier's scoring ability or his jump shot. They actually were all agreeing that the test for whether a player can make it in the NBA is if he can score on Chester Frazier.

Of late, Big Ten players aren't exactly making the cut, or passing the Chester Test. Here's a rundown of recent victims:

• E'Twaun Moore (Purdue): 6 pts, 2-9 fg.
• Trevon Hughes (Wisconsin): 0 pts, 0-7 fg and 13 pts, 5-13 fg.
• Evan Turner (Ohio State): 4 pts, 2-7 fg.
• Kalin Lucas (Mich. State): 10 pts, 3-13 fg.

All four of those guys would surprise no one if they made 1st team All Big Ten. Turner's four point night against Illinois was his only single-digit performance since the first game of the entire season, and he is averaging about 23 points per game in his five outings since Frazier shut him down.

We praise McCamey for his scoring, Meacham for his shooting, and Tisdale for his pure awesomeness, but Frazier is at best a "look who also played well" when it comes to a game recap. He gets his four rebounds and five assists, with at most one turnover and we give him the golf applause. It's time for more Frazier love. The guy is invaluable to Illinois.

And as Joe College points out, he absolutely deserves to be the Big Ten Defensive POY. If not, at least he has a future playing one-on-one at some NBA scouting combine; or, you know, that magic thing.